Addiction Blog. Insight and Advice
from Our Austin Area Addiction Recovery Experts.

A Faith-Based Approach to Alcoholism

A Faith-Based Approach to Alcoholism

Maintaining sobriety after completing treatment can feel like walking up a down escalator. No matter what kind of encouraging words friends and family offer, temptations to take a break and stop walking will arise. Hopelessness and Addiction The hopelessness feels real. To learn to live with addiction, you’ll want to create ways to move through…
A Grown Up Perspective on Peer Pressure

A Grown Up Perspective on Peer Pressure

The desire to be accepted and fit in stays with us throughout our lives. It’s in our nature; humans don’t like to be alone. No matter what age you are, there are going to be people in your life who will lift you up and some who will try to bring you down. Here’s how…
Forming Relationships in AA

Forming Relationships in AA

One of the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is to wait a year before entering into a relationship. For some, this might feel really restrictive. The idea behind this principle of Alcoholics Anonymous relationships is that an individual must learn to love oneself before loving someone else, though. Whether to wait a year or not…
About Addiction & How Exercise Can Improve Recovery

About Addiction & How Exercise Can Improve Recovery

Drug addiction helped by running and other exercisesHere at The Last Resort Recovery Center we will forever remain a program immersed and strongly rooted in the 12-steps. We believe the 12-steps will always be the “sufficient substitute” for alcohol and drugs, but what can we, The Last Resort, also provide that will help one’s recovery…
Peace & Acceptance

Acceptance

“For years I was sure the worst thing that could happen to a nice guy like me would be that I would turn out to be an alcoholic. Today I find it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. Today I find it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. This…
Adderall Abuse is Growing

Adderall Abuse is Growing

If you ask a college student on a typical American campus to name a commonly-abused drug on that campus, you might be surprised to hear that the answer is Adderall. This drug is frequently prescribed to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but college and even many high school students have discovered that it can increase…
Adderall Addiction Treatment - How Study Drugs Are Hurting College Students

Adderall Addiction Treatment – How Study Drugs Are Hurting College Students

What can I do about college Adderall abuse? All over the country, more and more college students are turning to so-called study drugs in order to pass the tests, pull all nighters, or just up their grades. In the face of mounting academic culture, they’ve turned to chemical solutions. But these chemicals have a dark…
Addiction - The Last Resort Recovery Center

Addiction

What exactly is addiction? The short definition by American Society of Addiction Medicine states,”Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and…
Do You Have an Addiction Aftercare Plan? Addiction Aftercare Programs For Men

Do You Have an Addiction Aftercare Plan? Addiction Aftercare Programs For Men

A common cliche in business is that no one plans to fail, but many people fail to plan. This is an equally true adage for addiction recovery. Few addicts will go through detox and rehab with an intention to relapse, but addicts that do relapse back to old alcohol or drug use habits often do…
Addiction Denial—How Can I Help My Loved One?

Addiction Denial—How Can I Help My Loved One?

What can I do if a member of my family or a loved one is denying their addiction? If you’re worried for your son, husband, brother, father, or other loved one, it can be hard to know how to support them. After all, people who are struggling with drug addiction have a very difficult time…
Addiction in our Prison Population

Addiction in our Prison Population

By some measures, drugs and alcohol are a component of roughly 80% of crimes involving property or violence. Drug users who are apprehended and incarcerated will theoretically have no access to drugs when they are behind bars, but the reality if prison is often at odds with the theory. Drug abuse and addiction are treated…
Addiction in the Military: Helping Our Veterans Recover

Addiction in the Military: Helping Our Veterans Recover

Military personnel are generally more prone to addictions to prescription painkillers and alcohol. Military field medics use morphine products to alleviate pain from combat-related injuries and physicians continue that pain treatment with opiate-based painkillers, leading to a rapid onset of opiate addiction. Members of the military who experience less severe injuries or who are fortunate…
Addiction Recovery and Gratitude: The Importance of Thankfulness

Addiction Recovery and Gratitude: The Importance of Thankfulness

The old recovery saying goes that an “attitude of gratitude” will keep you sober. Staying in gratitude keeps you out of dangerous places like resentment, jealousy, and fear. Maintaining focus on the good in all things makes it difficult to obsesses over the negative. When you are in the early stages of recovery from alcohol…
Addiction Recovery for Veterans

Addiction Recovery for Veterans

There are more than 21 million veterans living in the United States. More than 1.3 million of them served in multiple wars, a handful served in more than two. The suicide rate among veterans reached an all-time high in 2012. An increasing number of them are struggling with mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress…
Addiction, Jalapeños, and Running Really Far

Addiction, Jalapeños, and Running Really Far

Believe it or not, running and jalapeños may hold the key to recovery for some of you. This is about addiction running, and the way that my brain, the addict’s brain, uniquely over-responds to pleasurable experiences, and jalapeños.I had never been much of an athlete when I first started running. Yet, through some strange insidious…
Admitting to Your Sponsor that You Had a Drink

Admitting to Your Sponsor that You Had a Drink

Fear, shame and doubt are three main emotions which arise when seeking discussion with a sponsor regarding past drinking. Engaging in discussion with a sponsor need not be a difficult experience but one built on a relationship of trust and confidence that, no matter what, the sponsor is there to support an individual’s recovery regardless…
Alcohol Addiction vs. Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol Addiction vs. Alcohol Abuse

It’s important to understand the differences and similarities between alcohol addiction and alcohol abuse in order to receive the right kind of treatment. The two, though similar in some ways, are quite different and require two different approaches to recovery. The major difference between Alcohol Addiction and Alcohol Abuse An alcoholic is a person who…
How Alcohol Effects Academics for Your Son

How Alcohol Effects Academics for Your Son

What can I do if my son is abusing alcohol and it impacts his academics or grades? Millions of young people all over the country are struggling with abusing alcohol, sometimes even to the extent of suffering from addiction or alcoholism. Of course you know that your son drinking too much can cause problems, but…
Alcohol Poisoning: The Slow Death

Alcohol Poisoning: The Slow Death

Equating alcohol poisoning with slow death is something of a misnomer. Alcohol poisoning is not an instantaneous event, but if you consume a large amount of alcohol in a very short period of time, alcohol poisoning can kill you in a matter of a few hours. Individuals who succumb to alcohol poisoning often fall into…
Alcohol and Your Son: Young People Drink More than Anyone

Alcohol and Your Son: Young People Drink More than Anyone

What can I do if my son is drinking too much? Millions of Americans are drinking to dangerous levels, putting their health at risk. And unfortunately, statistics show that young people are the ones that are most at-risk for alcohol disorders. This often comes about because of a culture that encourages drinking (especially in college),…
Alcoholism and Divorced Men—How Can I Protect Myself?

Alcoholism and Divorced Men—How Can I Protect Myself?

What can I do as a divorced man to protect myself from alcoholism? Alcoholism is a disease that often comes from a place of great stress or turmoil. And a divorce certainly counts for both those things, in most cases. Many people turn to alcohol after a split up with their partner, using alcohol to…